I wondered about planting Hellebores in my woods. The virginia blue bells do very well there. My daughter has luck putting huge planters along the barnhouse wall with wire fencing. Maybe a wire lean-to? It is a south facing wall which helps. Have to keep trapping the chipmunks though.
Most of the pests I have are big ones--moose, bears, and the rare coyote. The one small pest I have are voles which tend to girdle trees and shrubs under the snow, and I don't find the damage until the snow melts. Moose will go through and orchard and strip every fruiting spur and but from the tree but the tree survives to bloom perhaps several years in the future. The tiny voles which are much harder to keep out of the orchard can kill an entire orchard in one winter.
We have voles too, and moles. My out door cat is pretty good at catching the voles, except when he catches one, he likes to bring it in the garage to bat it around and torment it before he eats it.
We used to have a wonderful barn cat who, we think, kept the voles under control. She died however, so we no longer have any carnivorous animals on our little farm.
My wife would love at least one cat since our old girl died at 20+ years old. I have a problem with animals on furniture, and that is a difficult thing with cats. We had one cat who acted like a dog and knew his place on the floor, but most of them are on counters, tables, and curtains. Cats on the kitchen table after using the litter box doesn't seem sane to me. I would have another barn cat, though.
Generally, cats enjoy being in high places. This is particularly noticeable when they get older and have bad days. With my older cats, I could tell when they were having a good day because they'd be up in a high place, or, perhaps they were having a good day because they were in a high place. Cats also like being in or on anything that's new and doesn't already smell like them, so any piece of furniture that doesn't already have cat hair on it is attractive.
My barn cat would love to be a house cat. But the house is rented and there are three dogs in it, and he bites. So he has a choice of the pole building or the barn house (which is actually pretty nice for a cat) But he wants people in it too. Not happening right now. There are more critters than he needs and he won't tolerate another cat. He looks at me and says "I had chipmunks (or voles or mice) for lunch." when I try to encourage him. I think he likes birds the best.
This morning I had to thin out the radishes. I over-planted seeds because I always worry that I won't get many to germinate, but they all seem to have popped up. So I thinned to about 1-2" apart and transplanted most of the ones I thinned out. Not sure if those will transplant well but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Happy to see that all of the transplanted radishes appear to have survived. We are going to have a bumper crop of radishes!! Here's a pic of my final "garden". Not much to take care of but it will keep me entertained. You can see where we dug up the stepping stones to reroute them. I was determined to get that 3rd raised bed "right THERE."
You are an inspiration for me My metal troughs are a bit larger than yours but I have a good idea about how to fill them. Not sure where to place them. I don't want them in the main gardens. But maybe nearby.
I dragged mine around for about a month, trying to decide where to put them. (And of course, after we filled the first two I decided I wanted to move them. ) I have limited space and too much shade in the yard since I can't control where the neighbors plant their damn trees. The spot where I had my "permanent" raised garden a few years ago is too shady now even though it's the best placement aesthetically. I'm about to order a couple of grow bags from Amazon and try to grow a few potatoes. All of this is just "something to play with" and a hobby; I'm not trying to feed us with these small beds. It's just nice to be outside and feel the sun on my face.
My daughter at the big box store said they had gotten in their fruit trees with lots of peach trees. Generally they don't grow here but I have gotten the two varieties that do over the years, so I went to see. Sadly they were all indoors there and were blooming already and, as Ed Wilson said, not quite time for me to plant. The good news is none of them were labeled with their variety so I would not have bought any anyway. They will go on sale after they drop the flowers. I could make one into a peach bonsai, maybe.